Choosing your door locks can be a daunting task considering there are so many types of door locks to choose from. The most important thing is safety, but aesthetics and ease of use are considerations as well. A lock will do you no good if it is so hard to use that you can’t get in or out of your house quickly in the case of emergency.

Front Door Security For Every Home

The truth is that in order to be as secure as possible, your front door is going to need a deadbolt. You have a couple of choices when it comes to deadbolts.

Single Cylinder Deadbolt – This is the most common deadbolt in homes. It requires a key to lock the outside of the door while the other side can be manually turned closed or open with a simply knob.

Double Cylinder Deadbolt – This deadbolt is not as popular because it requires a key to open and lock the deadbolt on both sides. One reason this may be a bad choice is because using a key to get out from the inside may be time consuming, especially in the case of an emergency. It can be hard enough to find our keys to get inside our house, and misplacing our keys to get outside can be very frustrating. However, if you have a door that has glass in or beside it, then the double cylinder deadbolt may offer more security because anyone who breaks the glass will not be able to reach in and turn the inner knob to let themselves inside.

Keyless Electronic Deadbolts – These have a keypad on the outside of the door and a manual knob on the inside of the door. They are programmable, which allows you to create your own code to lock and unlock the door. You can still use a key if you like on the keypad, but using the code makes keys a thing of the past for most people. The key will come in handy if the keypad were to ever stop working, which would be very unlikely.

Single Sided – If you just want to add some extra protection from the inside of your home, you can put in a single sided deadbolt that only has a manual knob on the inside of the house. This adds extra protection to a front door, especially if you are able to exit from another door and keep the single sided deadbolt locked at all times. Installing these on your main doors and exiting from your garage will lower your risk of a break in because most break-ins occur through the front or back door, and most burglars are only equipped to pick a key lock or engage in lock bumping. However, deadbolts can still be cut, so this isn’t a guarantee.

Considerations For At-Home Safety

A deadbolt is the best option for locking up when you go out of the home, but when you are in the home you can choose between a variety of options to add extra protection. In fact, installing more than one lock will make it harder for someone to break in, not impossible, but definitely harder.

The chain lock is always a great idea for security when answering the door. If the person does not seem trustworthy, then simply keeping the chain locked will give you an advantage if the person tries to force their way in. You will be able to use the lock to resist force and if you can’t close the door all the way, you should at least have time to grab a phone and call 911.

Other types of door locks will require you to open them if someone comes to the home, but they work well if you do not plan to open the door for strangers. For instance, a latch lock can add extra resistance against opening a door, and you can buy a wide variety of latch locks from thin to bulky. Of course, all of these latch locks needed to be mounted on the wall near the door or on the wall and the door, which means that with enough force the brace can still be knocked out of the wall.

In conclusion, there are many types of door locks, but installing a deadbolt will increase your front door security when you are away or when you are at home. Adding extra locks, such as a chain lock or a latch that work from the inside only, will help to somewhat reinforce your doors resistance to break in. New products like The Lock Locker control access similar to chain locks or latches but do so much more effectively. The Lock Locker actually restricts the deadbolt from turning making it impossible for someone to unlock ones door. Thereby making it harder for a break in to occur.

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Thanks so much for sharing all of this information about different types of locks! Right know, the only type of lock on our front door is just a single cylinder deadbolt, but I want to get something a little more safe. I’ll definitely be sure to look into a chain lock for added protection. After all, it’s better to be safe rather than sorry!

We agree it is better to be safe than sorry. With that said we no longer recommend chain locks for true protection. We have found that a product like The Lock Locker is much more effective in securing ones home and restricting access. The Lock Locker keeps the deadbolt in the locked position, preventing even a legitimate key from unlocking the door. This is extremely important since the keys to our homes are being sold online (legally in most cases) and with the emergence of 3D printed key technology. The Lock Locker also protects you from someone who may still have a copy of ones key and in the case of apartments where tenants have to trust that the keys that are in the hands of managers and maintenance staff are secure and won’t be misused.

I appreciate how you said that a deadbolt lock is the best option for exterior doors. My husband is going to be adding on to our home and we will need to get locks for the addition. We want our home and property to be keep as safe as possible, so we’ll be sure to find a deadbolt that can do that for us.